ENERGY SECTOR SKILLS: a Skills Plan for New Anglia
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1 | P a g e ENERGY SECTOR SKILLS: A Skills Plan for New Anglia Putting skills at the heart of building a competitive and sustainable local economy v004.2 March 2018 Energy Sector Skills Plan v004.2 2 | P a g e Background Context The Energy Sector Skills Plan has been developed with the Energy sector in Norfolk and Suffolk, working alongside the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, the New Anglia Skills Board and supported by SkillsReach. SkillsReach was contracted to facilitate and prepare eight sector skills plans for the New Anglia LEP priority sectors. The project was commissioned by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, in partnership with New Anglia LEP, and funded through the European Social Fund. Each Sector Skills plan and supporting Data Pack has been developed in collaboration with local employers and other stakeholders. The Sector Skills Plan has been developed in partnership with a number of local Energy stakeholders including major suppliers to the Energy Industry located in New Anglia, EDF Energy, Vattenfall, ScottishPower Renewables, EEEGR, ECITB, UEA and the New Anglia FE College Group. The New Anglia Skills Board places employers at the centre of decision making on skills in Norfolk and Suffolk to ensure the skills system becomes more responsive to the needs of employers, residents and the future economy. SkillsReach is an established East of England-based strategic skills consultancy with an associate project team with extensive experience of developing skills plans. Energy Sector Skills Plan v004.2 3 | P a g e Introduction The East of England Energy Zone is unrivalled in the UK for its unique mix of gas and oil, offshore renewables and nuclear energy production. It is a truly global, all-energy sector with 50 years’ experience and expertise that provides us the opportunity to nurture innovation between sectors, promote transferability for these combined competencies and support the development of the world’s largest windfarms. The country faces a significant challenge: to replace its ageing capacity, provide power to the nation’s homes and businesses and ensure that the nation’s lights do not go out. In rising to that challenge, we also have the opportunity to create economic growth, to rebalance the economy towards the regions and in favour of engineering and manufacturing and to attract inward investment. Nowhere is there a greater opportunity to do that than in East Anglia, which is already a significant player in the energy sector, with 35% to 45% of the nation’s gas supply coming through the Bacton terminal, where the Sizewell C nuclear power station will be built and with Lowestoft lying closest to the East Anglia Array, potentially the world’s largest wind farm. The Energy sector Skills Plan for New Anglia has been developed by both the public sector and the energy industry in the East. It is essential that employers play a full and supporting role in delivering the identified priority actions. Investing in skills and people is of paramount importance. We need to improve our skills base to serve the large demand that will come from the Southern North Sea in the next few years with regard to the oil and gas and wind sectors and nuclear new build programme. If we do not do that, businesses will source that expertise from other countries. With your support we will deliver this collective vision for skills development across New Anglia and deliver on the potential growth of our Energy Coast. Peter Aldous Member of Parliament for Waveney Energy Sector Skills Plan v004.2 4 | P a g e Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5 Overview of the Energy Sector .............................................................................................. 7 Sector Definition .................................................................................................................. 13 Opportunities and Challenges ............................................................................................. 14 Employer Feedback ......................................................................................................... 14 Meeting the Energy Skills Challenge and the Skills for Energy Programme (EEEGR) ..... 21 College and University Developments ............................................................................. 25 Further Views from industry and stakeholders on the responsiveness of skills provision . 25 The Energy Sector Skills Plan ............................................................................................. 28 Priorities for Action .......................................................................................................... 28 Leadership and Implementation: Reviewing Existing Partnership Structures ................... 29 Proposed Skills Interventions .......................................................................................... 33 Appendix A- Energy Skills Plan Development Process ....................................................... 45 Appendix B- Energy Evidence Report (Datapack Summary) ............................................... 48 Appendix C- Current Skills and Training Provision .............................................................. 53 Energy Sector Skills Plan v004.2 5 | P a g e Introduction The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has sponsored the development of an Energy Sector Skills Plan for the New Anglia area. The sector is defined as being a key economic sector for the New Anglia economy. Across the area there is global all-energy expertise with 50 years’ expertise in the oil and gas sector, and the world’s largest wind farms in development off the coast, with a globally competitive renewables supply chain and support industry. The East of England Energy Zone is unrivalled in the UK for its unique mix of wind power, gas and nuclear energy production. The supply chain has decades of experience and expertise, recognised with Enterprise Zone status. The coast around Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft is at the centre of the world’s largest market for offshore wind. Furthermore, capital investment in energy worth £50bn is planned for the region by 2020, with the world’s largest wind farm in development off the coast and the proposed development of Sizewell C nuclear power station creating 25,000 jobs. What A Skills Plan Is For Skills Plans are being produced in response to our recognised key employment sectors for Norfolk and Suffolk. The purpose of a skills plan is to ensure that businesses within these sectors are able to benefit from an appropriately skilled, productive and readily available workforce. We recognise how important the quality of the workforce is for business competitiveness and for creating sustainable jobs and careers. Previous plans have been produced for Health and Social Care, Digital Technologies and Construction. The skills plan aims to create a social partnership programme between the Energy sector’s industries and the relevant organisations that target and deliver support across the areas of New Anglia that experience relatively high levels of economic and social deprivation. The planned interventions aim to deliver lasting change for these areas by ensuring relevant training and sustainable employment is made accessible to New Anglia’s working age residents. Furthermore, that positive connection with education is in place to inform, inspire and secure the next generation of the Energy Sector workforce. The skills plans capture meaningful action to make a difference. For this- Energy Sector Skills Plan, we have captured the following key priorities: i. Mobilising Industry Leadership- the plan explains the importance of developing and securing a sustainable private sector led approach, overseeing skills development and investment; ii. Developing a higher technical engineering offer- feedback from employers has highlighted the need for a better supply of local, graduate level, mechanical and electrical engineering skills. Energy Sector Skills Plan v004.2 6 | P a g e iii. Building ‘intra-industry’ and ‘inter-sector’ workforce transferability- feedback from employers highlighted the need to enable businesses within the Energy sector to access skills and workers locally from other industries at key times, as much of their requirements are generic. iv. Addressing overall ‘Energy Skills Fragility’- employers are aware of jobs and key functions that experience skills shortages. We have defined these as fragile areas that require an appropriate training response, accessible to learners and employers across all of New Anglia. v. Building Inclusive Local Capacity & Securing the Future Energy Workforce - there are a number of pressure points and key concerns identified linked to the future supply of employees into the sector overall. We have identified a series of actions to engage with schools, open up opportunities to move into jobs within the Energy sector and address imbalances in the workforce linked to age and gender. In addition, the sector often looks externally out of area to for its labour supply, it is important to work with employers to tackle the barriers that inhibit the growth in local residents securing employment in the Energy sector. vi. Apprenticeships and Group Training- Given the implementation of the apprenticeship levy- there should be a more coordinated approach to gather and deliver apprenticeships linked to employer needs. This plan sets out steps to create a